M ISSED - A Short Film 14 years in the Making

A 7 year old girl waits to be collected after school. Nobody comes. What happened to them? What did she do next?

What happens to her?

Starring Tilly, in her first role.

(Film at bottom of this page)

Background; Why 14 years?

My Last short film, Irons, took many months to make, a huge amount of work, stress and five years worth of savings. I was hoping for some sort of career opportunity out of it. Had I been living in L.A., I might have had one. I was working in News at Channel 10. I showed someone in the Drama Department. Nothing happened. I applied for a bunch of Festivals. It got into two, one in South Africa. 

I was angry with Sydney Film Festival. I had made the film, hoping to get into it. I made the film shorter that it should have been to get into it. (Under 15mins). A mistake. It wanted to be longer. I've since re-edited parts of it (in 2011) but the original scenes are fixed and it's too late. 
They broke their own rules to screen Harvey Krumpet, an animation that had been doing well. That peed me off, so I wrote to the Entertainment section of the Daily Telegraph. They printed it. I got some satisfaction from that. Don't pick mine, that's fine but don't go changing your own rules to suit yourselves. 

Something that big, requires a lot of input. Literally 50-60 people worked on it. The bigger the project the harder it is to control, especially if most aren't getting paid. Inevitably, many compromises are made. I must bear the brunt of it though as I was ultimately the one in charge. I was happy with about 50%. Maybe 60% on a good day.

From there on, I decided to concentrate on writing, and began writing my first novel later that same year, 2004. I could create whatever I wanted, without budgetary constraints, and have total control over my universe. And to be honest, I found Directing extremely stressful. I enjoyed editing and the writing the most.

And so went the next dozen years. Many novels, stories and poetry were created. Something I returned to, in a way, as I began writing stories at ten.

I continued to make small videos in the way of Video Poetry and Music style videos and Family videos. And I had a daughter. All of that takes up your time. I had a job and was a step father too. God, no wonder I'm tired.

Come early 2018, I decided I wanted to make a little film. So small that I would make all of it myself and have total control. I did'nt want Irons to be my last film. And you know? I'm pretty happy with it. And I had an actor whom I could work with. That's always a positive. She did good. Especially as the film progresses. It was shot mostly in order.

Budget? Around $400, compared to $35,000 of Irons. I submitted it to a bunch of small Festivals, which is why I had to wait. Then I was concentrating on releasing my book, A Refugees Rage in 2019. It got into one Festival in LA.

And now it has life. Enjoy. Please share the video if you can. It's the 'Little film that could.'

Watch MISSED  on Vimeo.

MISSED Now on IMDB HERE - If you are able, a Rating would be awesome.

See IRONS and other Short Films Here.